A panoramic view of the city of Bismarck, Dakota Territory (North Dakota - today) in 1883. Just 7 years earlier in 1876, General George A. Custer left Fort Abraham Lincoln directly across the Missouri River from Bismarck and led his troops to battle at the Little-Big Horn River. Bismarck is located in Burleigh County and was originally named The Crossing (1871); named Edwinton for Edwin F. Johnson, chief engineer of Northern Pacific RR (1872); and finally named Bismarck for Fursten Otto von Bismarck, Chancellor of Germany.